


Paper Lanterns

by UlternateFreak



Series: Your Love's Got Me Lookin' So... [1]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Spider-Man (Comicverse), Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Confused Peter Parker, F/M, Friendship/Love, Gay Harley Keener, Gay Panic, Harley Keener & Peter Parker Friendship, Harley Keener Needs a Hug, Hurt Harley Keener, Love Confessions, Love Triangles, Love/Hate, M/M, One Shot, One-Sided Attraction, Parent Tony Stark, Peter Parker is a Mess, Sad Ending, Unrequited Love, parkner
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-23
Updated: 2021-01-23
Packaged: 2021-03-14 23:01:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,498
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28928469
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/UlternateFreak/pseuds/UlternateFreak
Summary: "I get the feeling that your definition of friends is different from mine," Harley said to his menu, taking a much needed breath as he dared to continue. "Friends don't fuck each other, after all - and then stop talking because of it. Only to then ask them out on a date – so what gives here? I don't get it, Pete.""...I don't get it either," Peter whispered after a moment.
Relationships: Harley Keener & Gwen Stacy, Harley Keener & Peter Parker & Tony Stark, Harley Keener/Harry Osborn, Harley Keener/Peter Parker, Michelle Jones/Peter Parker, Pepper Potts/Tony Stark
Series: Your Love's Got Me Lookin' So... [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2142984
Comments: 1
Kudos: 33





	Paper Lanterns

**Author's Note:**

> So, I for whatever reason had inspiration to write this while working on 'Love on a Wire'.  
> Much of the main scene is inspired by The Amazing Spiderman 2 conversation between Peter and Gwen.
> 
> (I very much wrote this on a whim today, so hopefully mistakes are far and in-between).
> 
> Enjoy.

**"How was Rose Hill?" Peter asked firstly – hands splayed out over the table, and menu propped over to the side. His hair, as per usual, coiffed and naturally set – seeming darker than usual beneath the lighting given by the hundreds of lanterns adorning the ceiling.**

**The waitress had just left them, the usual spew of 'be with you in a few,' quick and impersonal.**

**The Golden Chicken Inn in Lower Manhattan, is in typical fashion by the time Harley comes to sit across from the other – the bustle of civilian life in Chinatown sparingly given within moderate to light traffic.**

**"It was nice,” he answered in earnest, jacket now removed and hanging over the shared booth, “a change of pace.”**

**"I'd like to visit there one day," Peter then remarked, "it'd be nice to see where you grew up, you know?"**

**"Yeah," he nodded, the chuckle light though appalling – a cruel joke to an otherwise naïve and seemingly innocent comment, "uh – so, what's this all about, Pete?"**

**"What?"**

**"This," Harley repeated, "you? Me? We're not exactly friends and yet here you are,” he chuckled once more, “– talking about coming to my hometown of all places-"**

**"Well, we can be,” Peter then said, “ – friends, that is. I miss you.”**

...

_There those words were given again. The same set of three that had begun everything between them. Or – at least, the start of the most unspoken issue that had befallen and separated them to begin with._

_The start, if one could pinpoint such, laid further back into the year – really, towards the end of the previous year. The Holidays yet to have passed, though the time in which to mentally prepare and calculate ones spending, thusly needed._

_Now Harley isn't exactly sure when it had started, in truth. For arguments sake, it could have begun the first time Tony had mentioned Peter Parker in passing over a video call – the man's face falling into a fatherly look of amusement as he recounted some story in which the other teen had helplessly set a work room on fire. Or it could have started upon their first actual meeting – again, over and between a monitor – with Peter excelling at shocking Tony back into a far wall. Due to a miscalculation over an anti-gravity field type of device that the man had been testing._

_Each time, a laugh had sparked within Harley – followed by an intrigue over the brunette who had fallen into Tony's lap much like he had done years prior. The intrigue had – rightly of course, because yes, Harley had been – and still was – a teen who had serious depths of abandonment daddy issues – felt an inclination of jealously brushed up against it._

_Still, to the untrained eye, he had been mostly opened and gracious in welcoming him – the invitation there to greet and relent, and – more poignantly – to accept the other for who and what he was. To the man or otherwise._

  
_"He's a good kid," Tony had surmised to him once the other had been out of ear shot. And Harley had nodded, following along with his actual musings over a small battery that, at the time, had been needed to be used as power supply to his home in Rose hill, Tennessee. Another attempt to quell against the raising prices of his, and his families, living expenses._

_"Wouldn't expect anything less-"_

_"Are you inferring that I'm a good judge of character?" Tony had asked._

_"Probably not," he had said, "I mean, you keep me around after all-"_

_..._

**"So you keep saying,” Harley repeated evenly – his own attention now properly situated to the menu, and it's countless choices of dish. “Every. Damn. Time. But I get the feeling that your definition of friends is different from mine."**

...

_Their team-ups, as Tony would later put them, had become frequent between the three of them._

_Sure, Harley had kept Tony to himself now and again – an arrangement that hadn't needed to be voiced or dealt with in the slightest. But also, at times, if rarely at that – though closely inching towards a thrice a month type of existence – calls between just him and Peter the same._

_During such times, the actual work had been very little – the teachings nonexistent, with Peter either detailing some event of his life – or Harley speaking of a future that had still yet to come._

_"Aiming for Senior year?"_

_"Yeah," Harley had nodded around a mouthful of instant noodles. A means of a meal that he had often found himself turning to. "It"d be easier to settle for college if I have one years preparation in the city-"_

_"Still gonna be a big change-"_

_"Which is why," he had smiled, "I'm lucky to have you."_

_Perhaps then, everything had actually begun with his imminent arrival in New York City – just before school had been set to begin again – his trip having taken hours by way of a proper send off between his family and the physical reunion with the man who had opened so many doors for him._

_Harley had grown taller in the years separating them, though Tony had welcomed it as well as he could. The short jokes only measured and humored in stride for about an hour or so before he had threatened Harley with deportation._

_"And I assume no introductions are needed by now," Tony had amended, his arm crooned around the lovely Ms. Potts – soon to be Mrs. Stark – though head in acknowledgment to the boy awaiting by the bar of the pent house floor._

_"Peter," Harley had admired aloud, sizing the other boy up entirely – his hand taking refugee in a tight grip that proved gracious and just as welcoming as their first introduction._

_Though perhaps less false than Harley's initial premise._

_Now if Tony Stark had been teasingly short, than Peter Parker, in every regard, had proven himself adorably fitting. His head capable of crooning into Harley's neck perfectly – and easily without much fretting. Course he hadn't remarked such thoughts to begin with – no, his head had been too adamant in admiring the tufts of chocolate brown hair, the all too expressive eyes, and the heart shattering smile that Harley would have gladly taken with him to the morgue._

_"You're a bit taller in person-"_

_"Please," Tony had remarked with an up turn of his nose, "don't get him started on his height-"_

_Be it whichever moment – the fire, the shock, or the grip – Harley had come to learn the sight of every inch of accessible skin that Peter Parker had felt comfortable enough to conveniently share with him then._

_His neck, which had always seemed to stand unblemished, had been of a light peach tone – faintly a near pale, though never quite white to dispel entirely._

_It had proven the same color of skin as to that of the patch beneath his ear, or the expanse sitting high on his chest but apart from his collar bone which had always seemed to catch the sun. He had suspected that the color could be found beneath the boy's everyday attire as well, where Peter hadn't permitted a single soul to venture before._

_At least, of that which Harley had been privy to._

_His hands, though darker in slights where knuckles met wrists, were vaguely similar in palms – which Harley did hold the pleasures of from time to time._

_But besides that - of which the physical inclinations had rested – Peter Parker had also stood as a beacon of light. A ray of sunshine that had always seemed to somehow come through even the most cloudiest of days._

_"Must you try to see the best of everything?" He had asked the boy one morning, their steps taking them to the third floor of Midtown High. A mutual route around two separate courses of study._

_"Its always look to the bright side with you-"_

_"Well, somebody has to," Peter had argued, simply and irrefutable. “If not us, then who?”_

_..._

**Harley took a much needed breath – his heart hurdling forward as his voice dared to continue.**

**"Friends don't fuck each other, after all,” he started, still solely looking to the menu, “-and then stop talking because of it.”**

**“They don't then decide to talk again and make out with each other. Only to disappear again and then ask them out on a date – so what gives here?”**

**Finally, he had given in. With his eyes determined to hold back any weakness that his heart had tried to helpfully supply. “I don't get it."**

**"...I don't get it either," Peter whispered after a moment.**

...

_Before long, Harley had felt at home among the tower and it's frequent visitors – many being that of the handful of Avengers who had come and gone throughout the weeks._

_More so than that, he had begun to feel much more included in the daily life of Midtown High. Where Peter's friends had felt inclined to include him in everything that there had been to do._

_"-and try outs are this Friday," Ned had finished between his chewing. Tirade over._

_"Its gonna be a great year-"_

_"Whys that?" Harley had asked._

_"Because I'm Captain," Mj had said with a brief pause. Her hand still scribbling away into a leather bound journal. "Obviously-"_

_"We voted for her last year – since Liz left."_

_"Who's Liz?"_

_At that, Mj had stopped her hands altogether – face disinterested but jutted outward towards Peter like an arrow._

_"Peter's lost love," she had then said, snark loose._

_And- "we went on one date-" the boy had defended, cheeks tainted pink. Then, "it didn't work out."_

_"Her dad was sent to prison," Ned then helpfully aided, "she and her family had to move."_

_It's unsurprising to learn that Peter Parker had already shown sexual interest in others before his coming. With him being sixteen and all. Though it's a different matter altogether to learn that his interests solely sat with the opposite sex._

_To say that Harley had been disappointed with the news, had placed it mildly. Though he hadn't fretted too long and had simply accepted it as fact. He, after all, could still look to like the brunette – his heart may have had even continued to fiercely call out to the other like a beating drum – but his own actions, which he had tended to have control over – had decided to seek elsewhere._

_His time, which had been spent in closets before then, no longer necessary and needed once freely released onto the broader ever expanding city._

_By mid-year, Harley had not only been seeing someone of his own year, but Juniors, Peter Parker and Michelle Jones, had been rumored to be seeing one another. At least, the talks had assured him that a love had been blossoming between the two. Secretly – be it between them, or around them._

_Harley had hardly taken to them as much as he used to by then – his own classes in difference to their schedules, and lunches spent either with his own boyfriend, the heir to Oscorp Industries – Harold Osborn, or in studies with his own degrees and interests. Mostly being catered and shared between his newest friend – and mutual colleague – Gwendolyn Stacy._

_Peter, after all, hadn't been his ultimatum in coming to New York – but merely a bonus before being classified as an improbability._

  
_He and Peter had still come to see one another from time to time, mostly on shared outings with Tony – or the occasional errand runs crafted by Pepper's hands when proven too preoccupied with managing a company and handling wedding preparations._

_They had even stood together, in truth, once the Stark's had been officiated, the wedding held at a quaint wooden cabin by a lake – which, to no ones surprise, had also been a gift from Tony to his new wife. A getaway home for the Holidays, or other misdoings._

_It had been a private affair, the Avengers and other such heroes in attendance._

_That being so, Peter and Harley had been without their dates – and were instead paired with two bridesmaids for the ceremony. But otherwise stagged in principle. Not that Miss Pott's friends had been ill suited. But rather, too old and not within Harley's actual preferences._

_"Harley," Peter had said by way of a greeting, his suit jacket gone, and deep navy vest half-buttoned with his matching bow-tie limply undone, "do you come here often?"_

_"That's terrible," Harley had returned in earnest, his own person just as disheveled._

_He had been sitting at a lone table – the once crimson sky having already darkened. The floral lanterns strung overhead, glistening among the stars. "You're terrible-"_

_"Be that so," the other had then bowed with a laugh, his hand already ahead of his words as he had continued, "would you care to dance?"_

_Harley had only pondered for a moment, taking in the sight of the peach-ed palm – and the ambient light that had gradient-ed Peter's hair from dark brown to a near gold._

_"Just don't step on my feet."_

  
_They had danced for what had felt like hours, even as the groups had dwindled – with Tony and Pepper adorned in new outfits, and partaking at the bar with their more legal guests in attendance._

_"You know," Peter had then started, "this is the longest we've seen each other in months-"_

_"Probably-"_

_"Not even a rebuttal?" He had teased._

_"Nope."_

_"Who are you. And what have you done with Harley Keener?"_

_"He's back in the city – why? Don't you like the guy dancing with you now?"_

_"He's passable-"_

_"You wound me, Pete."_

_"I've missed you."_

_The words had been heavy, Harley could tell – especially as those brown eyes had shimmered over in opened exposure, palms clamming all the while._

_"T-that probably sounds weird-"_

_"No," Harley had said, "not weird at all."_

_They had stolen flutes of champagne after that, refills relatively easy to come by – which Harley had secretly suspected being of Tony's own doing. They're responsible, after all – the man had known that._

_So it wouldn't have been too unlikely for him to turn a blind eye._

_By early morning – lost after the chimes of midnight with the music gone but stars still in attendance – Peter and Harley had found themselves giggling like a pair of school girls. A wilt to their walking as they had crashed into the spare bedroom that had been offered for their permanent taking._

_There, a set of bunk beds had been built and set. Though the two had chosen to collide onto the single bottom bed, too tired to try and catapult their way upwards._

_"-we'll probably pay for that tomorrow-" Peter had remarked, still lost in his breaths._

_"Pff - Steven had it coming," Harley had only continued in his own laughs, "for what he did to Tony-"_

_"That was a long time ago-"_

_"Still. It was a good shot, wasn't it?"_

_"He never saw that slice of cake coming," Peter had folded. "But now we've been banished. To our room, what are we – kids?"_

_"Thor had a good laugh-"_

_"Pepper too."_

_The laughs had been intertwined, just as their legs had been – which only burrowed further together into knots upon Harley's turning, his need to remove his vest and tie too crucial to ignore any longer._

_"This was fun," Peter had opted. Always the one to delegate truth, and over come Harley's doubts and insecurities to voice anything of the sort. "We should have been together-"_

_"What-?"_

_"Come together," Peter had corrected with a flush, “we work better together? So why not wedding dates?”_

_Harley had nodded, mirth still dancing about his eyes – with Peter riped and shy – fingers toying about his own vest._

_"...I have really missed you," the boy had begun again, "why did things change? I thought- I don't know. We were getting along, weren't we?”_

_"We both became busy," Harley had lied, choosing to lay back down and besides the other, “it's what happens, isn't it? People come and go? Plus...you started dating Mj – and-"_

_"You dated Harry first-"_

_"What does that matter?"_

_"It doesn't," Peter had relented, looking unconvinced himself. Face turned towards the bottom side of the bunk over them, "but then it does."_

_"It does?"_

_"It does," he had repeated._

...

**"You're impossible," Harley said with a groan, leaning back in his seat – menu entirely forgotten, though choice evidently made. "You know that? You're extremely kind and generous, and smart and brave – but stubborn and just impossible."**

**"...I just don't know, Harley,” Peter said as before, lips pursed with a crooked tilt to his head, “how can I-?” He sighed, “what does this make me?"**

**"I don't know,” Harley answered with a curt nod of his head, “what does it make you?"**

**"It makes me not understand myself-"**

**"And here I thought it meant that you had feelings for me-"**

**"But I do," he thusly decided – for once sounding certain, "...I do have feelings for you."**

...

_It hadn't been clear as to who had moved first – especially once the morning sun had drifted in, stirring Harley awake to an empty bed. But he had undoubtedly come to learn exactly where Peter's flesh had darkened and remained unblemished – the traces of peach being overwhelmingly sweet and sinful to the touch. And Peter had met every mark of his own. Had even tasted him as much as Harley had._

_With fumbling limbs, and seedy mouths, and greedy eyes – Peter had taken all that Harley had been willing to give him from the start. His thrusts powerful and true, painful and pleasurable as they had kept to a known rhythm that had only played between them. Not even Harry, who Harley had shared many a nights as this, had ever seemed to find that melody._

_Only Peter._

_He had, in truth, come completely undone – like a flower plucked from it's bush – with the younger boy finishing deep inside of him. The seed planted and irremovable. The ability to forget impossible._

_The wish to do so inconceivable._

_Perhaps then – the reality of the start of things hadn't occurred until that very night._

  
_"I'm not sure where he went," Tony had told him over pancakes the morning after, his own hangover light – and breath smelling of coffee, "he left a note though – probably back in Queens."_

...

**"Then why isn't that enough?" Harley finally braved to ask, sitting tall and direct.**

**"I don't know...what if-? I-”**

**“Peter- listen-”**

**“No, wait – wait – wait.” He continuously repeated, voice leveling out as he flushed himself over the table, seemingly seeking to touch Harley in any way imaginable, "wait – ...It's not that easy, Harley – and Mj-"**

**"Heh, you and Mj. Right, I almost forgot," Harley said after another chuckle, body searching for his menu without reason – then, "no, you know – this, you and her. Me and you. When I was with Harry, I still wanted you. Even now – you... You, Peter Parker, alone make all of these headaches worth it for me. But you-? Lying, and wanting for us to be something but not exactly together. By what – sneaking around? Pretending that nothing ever happened? Who does that exactly work out for Peter?"**

**He shrugged, "...It's just not that easy," he repeated as before, "-I c-can't...I'm sorry, Harley."**

**"Wow," Harley sighed, nodding along – with his eyes drifting to the red lanterns hanging from the ceiling, "you have done this to me again and again, Peter. I can't keep doing this." He rose to stand then, his reaching for his coat adamant as Peter simply stayed in his seat – staring up at him.**

**"Just know,” he continued, “I'm leaving you this time.”**

**“I'm leaving you,” he emphasized again.**

...

_Upon returning to life, everything had seemed mainly the same – only Harley had ended things with Harry. His guilt too known and condescending to continue on as if anything hadn't happened._

_Though for all purposes and reasons, nothing had happened – and Harley had simply placed himself as the asshole who had broken Harry Osborn's heart._

_He had tried to call Peter plenty of times before then, but the boy had refused to speak to him – was outright avoiding him if anything else since the previous night at the cabin._

_He must have been privy to the knowledge of his break up though. And yet he himself had continued to maintain his own relationship with Mj._

_So as with the learning of his sexuality, Harley had decided to let things be as they had been. For his sake. For Peter's sake. If only because he knew and understood that the fault had most likely laid with him._

_It had been Harley to lust and love Peter after all, not the other way around. So who else could the submission of blame had been thrust upon if not himself?_

_By Springtime, Harley had been awaiting several college admissions. The news of his soon to be future forthcoming, though taunting with each passing day. He and Peter had still come to see each other of course, as before – between Tony and Pepper, but it hadn't been the same. The drift this time had proved much more grand, and apparent._

_They were no longer friends, or even basic acquaintances._

_Simply Harley and Peter._

_No more and no less._

_Tony had tried to understand it, seeking to question as if a thorough application himself. But Harley hadn't budged. Not in the sense of all that had been true._

_"A falling out," he had deemed it, "it happens. We grow apart. Life goes on."_

_To his knowledge, Peter had basically surmised the same._

_When graduation day had swung by, Harley had been all smiles._

_By some miracle of the sorts, Harry Osborn, now a very good friend, had been by his side in support and mutual celebration of his own achievements. He had, by that start of Summer, been dating Gwen Stacy herself – his tastes being peculiar in only seeking to bed brilliant blonds with an attitude to boot._

_They had made an unlikely trio together, though worked to an absurd degree._

_"As we look around here today," Gwen had amended through her speech, her valedictorian sash draped about her shoulders in brilliant golds, "at all of the people who helped make us who we are – I know it feels like we're saying goodbye, but we will carry a piece of each other into everything we do next. To remind us who we are – and who we're meant to be...-"_

_The party that had been thrown in his honor had been held at a concert hall – Tony's doing of course - with invitations given to most members of the student body. Those who Harley had considered – be them in passing, in stride, or in prideful acknowledgment of comradeship. Past or present._

_"Hey," Peter had greeted in surprise, his person noted in attendance but voice being a shock to anyone in the know within the last few months. Luckily, or perhaps strategically, no one had actually been around to bare witness it._

_"Congratulations," he had continued, offering him a small box that had been skillfully wrapped together, "May sends her love too."_

_"Tell her the same," Harley had said, nodding curtly and offering a kind and gracious smile._

_He had expected for Peter to leave after that – possibly back to Ned and Mj who had been there upon his request._

_"Aren't you going to open it?"_

_"Now?"_

_He had nodded._

_The gift had proven a small pendant, a silver case with an arc reactor etched into the cover – behind it, on the back side, a web design that wrapped about a peculiar, though highly recognized, date._

_"My first day in New York," Harley had bemused._

_"The first day we met," Peter had agreed._

_He hadn't been sure as to what to do with that acknowledgment, the date seemingly cruel and mockingly foreboding._

_"So you don't forget me," Peter had then bravely – and stupidly – continued. Stepping in closer to Harley's person._

_And it had become apparent, to the both of them, that they hadn't been this close since the night of the wedding. Since first they had come to learn every inch of each other._  
_And it had been equally mortifying and entirely arousing – though mainly upsetting._

_Still, "I don't plan on ever forgetting you," Harley had relented in spite of it all._

_"Good. I don't want you to."_

_This time, without a doubt, it had been Peter Parker who had made the first move – coming in closer to properly kiss Harley on his cheek – then his nose, followed by his mouth – his hand, in concession, seething to touch against bare skin – drifting in beneath his shirt._

_And just as that night, it had been feral and desperate – needy atop of yearning._

_Though it had ended too soon. The after math coming to fruition much faster than that night._

_"...I miss you," he had finished. And Harley had moved to speak, even as his mind had spiraled into a black sort of endless nothing._

_Tony, however, had decided there and then to make an entrance, his arms seeking to wrap about them as he had broadly brimmed between them._

_"My boys," he had announced. "Come on, you guys can talk among yourselves later. Pep wants pictures."_

_The Summer had been long, even with Harley's missed first week. His return to his roots bringing him back to Rose hill. Where his mother and sister had congratulated him in their own terms – the neighbors present for a casual barbecue that Harley had welcomed in every way imaginable._

_Too soon, however, he had ventured back into the city – the Avengers Tower his home until his move into his dormitory of Empire State come the following term._

_It had been a nice and palatable break from schooling, though he had been insistent in helping Pepper throughout it. As if an unpaid intern on the brink of needing the in-tel and connections._

_"Harley, dear-" She had called to him one afternoon, her hair done up in a fashionable bun that still screamed of beauty and elegance after all these years._

_"Yes?" He had remarked, popping into her office from behind the glass door that had separated her from the main floor._

_"There's a phone call on line one for you," she had said._

_"On the work phone? Why not call my cell?"_

_"Perhaps they thought you wouldn't answer otherwise,” she shrugged._

  
_The call had been, of course – who else but Peter Parker himself._

_And he had asked to save a date for him in his otherwise not really busy at all life. And though Harley had wanted to protest, he had agreed. Because he'd always agree to anything when it came to Peter, even after all that had been said and done._

_He was idiot, after all._

_And though he had certainly known better, his heart had continued to yearn for the brunette boy with the overbearing eyes and the godforsaken smile._

_“Golden Chicken Inn,” Peter had told him over the phone, “in Lower Manhattan.”_

_"Okay, Pete."_

_"It's a date," he had finished._


End file.
